The present invention relates to a system for remote monitoring of individuals, and especially to a system for monitoring the physical activity, body position and occurrence of falls of a person being monitored.
In many situations, hospitalization or constant supervision of persons who are physically handicapped or elderly is not warranted nor feasible. The same may be true when an infirmity related to, for example, illness, injury, or some other medical condition does not warrant staying at a hospital or other medical facility. Such persons may be allowed to return home or to some other remote location away from the hospital or medical facility at which the individual is a patient. Accordingly, many such persons are left unattended without a care giver knowing the state of that individual. Moreover, even in facilities such as a nursing home or other supervised care facility, those responsible to ensure the care of their patients may not know for minutes to hours (or longer) if or when a patient has fallen.
In these circumstances, it may be desirable to monitor the body position of the person at any given time in order to determine whether there is a possibility that the person has fallen. One device known in the art for detecting when a person has fallen is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,622 to Osterweil and includes a harness having a ferromagnetic shunt that is attached to the person being monitored. While the person is lying in bed, the shunt is attached to a sensing means. When the monitored person is about to fall out of the bed, the shunt detaches from the sensing means alerting monitoring personnel. The device has many drawbacks including the fact that the system is not completely mobile with the person being monitored.
A similar device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,380 to Edwards in which a bed monitoring system detects an attempted departure from a bed or the like by a monitored person. The system generates an RF signal to produce an alarm signal whenever an ankle bracelet or some other device worn by the monitored person moves outside of the monitored volume. Such a device, however, only provides an indication of relative position, not the actual state of the person being monitored.
Likewise, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,133, an apparatus for indicating when a patient has evacuated a bed or demonstrates a restless condition is disclosed. In this device, a switch is placed in a bed under the patient which includes two spaced parallel strips of insulating material carrying contact means therebetween. When the strips are straight, the switch is closed, and when the strips are bent into an arc, the switch is open. Closing the switch activates an electrical oscillator, which in turn activates a counter. Upon reaching a selected count, an alarm is activated. Again, however, this device has many drawbacks including its immobility relative to the patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,858 to Myllymaki discloses a wrist-held monitoring device for independently observing the physical condition of a person by means of motoric activity or movement and physiological conditions, e.g., temperature and/or electric conductivity of the skin. The invention also discloses the use of an acceleration sensor which may be used to indicate the rate of acceleration of the individual's hand movements. This device, however, merely senses the presence or absence of movement of the monitored individual, and in particular, his/her hand/wrist, which is insufficient in determining if a person has fallen.
It is believed that if some or all of the problems associated with the prior art were adequately addressed, more effective monitoring of a patient could be maintained while allowing the patient to be mobile and to conduct an independent lifestyle. In addition, by providing accurate information about the relative movement and position of the individual, a system for monitoring individuals could save many lives. Such a system would be able to automatically monitor the physical activity and body position of a person and, if data generated by the monitoring exceeds predetermined parameters indicative of an alert state, appropriate care givers or those in a monitoring capacity could be directly alerted to the condition.
Thus, there is a need for a monitoring system that may be worn by individuals where monitoring movement and body position of the person may be beneficial to the welfare of the individual. Such a system preferably can independently determine when certain physical conditions may be present and can alert monitoring personnel or a family member that such a condition may exist.
The system may also include a means for transmitting data to a remote location where one or more persons may be monitored simultaneously. Moreover, all of the units may be interconnected via preexisting communications systems, allowing all units to operate and be monitored without the need for relatively expensive independent communications systems.